


Run, Belle, Run

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, Anyelle, F/M, Rushbelle, cw: violence mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 05:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18336776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Rushbelle. After her boyfriend is hospitalised, Belle will move mountains to get to him and tell him the words she needs him to hear.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “I love you more than learning itself.”





	Run, Belle, Run

Belle French was not ordinarily in the habit of running anywhere. Between her love for high heeled shoes and her remarkable penchant for daydreaming given the slightest provocation, she tended to make her way from A to B at her own leisurely pace.

That was not the case today, however. Belle was running hell for leather down the sidewalk towards the ER’s pedestrian entrance and absolutely nothing was going to get in her way. It was rush hour and people were thronging up and down the streets, but as soon as they saw her speed, general direction, and the look of sheer determination on her face, coupled with her purse wildly flailing from her shoulder and the stilettos she was brandishing like weapons, bare feet pounding the pavement, they moved aside to let her through.

The traffic was so bad that the taxi had dropped her at the previous block, but Belle couldn’t feel her heart racing or the blood pounding in her ears. All her attention was focused on the hospital, or more importantly, the man currently somewhere inside it.

When she’d received the call, she hadn’t been able to take it all in at first. She didn’t know why the police would be contacting her about anything, and once she realised fully what had happened, it still took the sergeant on the other end of the line another five minutes of explaining before she finally believed him.

Nicholas was supposed to meet her for lunch, and he hadn’t shown. It wasn’t the first time he’d been late; he was never the most reliable of dates once he got his head stuck in one of his equations. Still, it was a special occasion and Belle had been rather put out by his failure to respond to any of her calls or texts asking where the hell he was. Finally, after an embarrassing hour of sitting alone in a restaurant, she’d snapped, leaving him one final vitriol-filled message that if he continued to show her such little respect and basic decency then their relationship was on rocky ground. She’d gone home to a bottle of Chardonnay and a tub of raspberry ripple. She hadn’t even bothered taking her shoes off before she got stuck in. Maybe if she had done, she wouldn’t be running down the street with suede stilettos in her hands.

It was only once she’d got the fateful call that she’d realised the horrible reason for his absence, and now she felt sick with guilt and an excess of ice-cream.

_There’s been an incident,_ they’d said. _You’re listed as Mr Rush’s emergency contact._

_Doctor,_ she’d corrected them on autopilot, because she knew that Nicholas would never let anyone get away with missing out his PhD. She hadn’t known that she was his emergency contact. When had that happened?

_He’s been mugged, beaten badly._

It had taken such a long time for it to sink in, and now as she ran, Belle cursed herself for having sat there in dumb shocked silence for so long when she could have been using those precious minutes to get to him. God, she couldn’t lose him; she’d lost too much already. He was infuriating and annoying and he made her want to scream sometimes, but he was hers and she loved him so much she felt like she might shatter into dust if anything were to happen to him. To think, she’d been yelling at his answerphone whilst he’d been lying helpless and bleeding in the street. She’d never forgive herself.

Her entrance into the waiting room was just as dramatic as her run down the street had been. She must have looked a sight, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except Nicholas.

“Can I help you?” The woman on the reception desk sounded startled; from the speed with which she had flown into the department, Belle thought that any observer could be forgiven for believing she needed urgent medical attention herself.

“I’m looking for Nicholas Rush. I got a call to say that he was brought here after an assault.”

The receptionist tapped away on her computer as Belle leaned on the counter to get her breath back, ignoring the looks from the other people in the waiting room.

“I’ll let them know when you’re here, and someone will fetch you when they’re ready for you to see him. Take a seat in the waiting area, please.”

“Is he ok? Is there anything else that you can tell me? Is he conscious? Is he going to be all right? The police said that there was a knife…”

“I don’t have that information, Miss French, I’m sorry.” The receptionist’s tone was compassionate but firm. “Please have a seat. The doctors and nurses will fill you in as soon as they can.”

Belle nodded and made her way over to a seat in the corner of the waiting room. Now that she’d stopped running and the shot of adrenaline was beginning to wear off, her legs felt like jelly. She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

Nicholas had to be ok. There was no other alternative. He was too stubborn to be anything other than ok. He felt he still had so much to prove to the world. Maybe that was what had first drawn her to him, way back when: his fire and his determination to prove something. She wasn’t sure if she even fully understood what he was trying to prove, other than his worth to the academic elite who looked down on his humble roots.

They’d first met in class. Belle had decided to enrol in a few courses on the side to keep her busy alongside her job in the university library, and astrophysics had seemed like a good idea at that time. She’d asked a question during the lecture, which had turned into an argument that had completely derailed the lesson and continued into the coffee shop afterwards. It had set the pattern for most of their relationship. Belle loved to learn, and Nicholas loved to argue, and they had got on like a house on fire. Of course, some of the arguments were not of a mathematical or astrophysical nature, and, given the headstrong attitudes that they were both inclined to, they’d certainly seen some ups and downs, but Belle wouldn’t trade them for the world.  It was only now that she was faced with the prospect of losing him that she fully understood the depth of her feelings.

She loved him. It was as plain and simple as that. No frills or embellishments, no eureka moments or fireworks. It had happened so easily and naturally that she had barely noticed it happening.

And now it might all be too late.

Belle pushed that pessimistic thought firmly away and tried not to focus on the what-ifs, looking instead at her grimy feet. She wrinkled her nose and grabbed some tissues and hand sanitiser from the reception desk to clean herself up with before she put her shoes back on, and she settled down to wait, reciting the periodic table to try and distract her from thinking about, well, about anything really. They seemed to be taking a very long time to come and get her. Was that a good sign or a bad one?

“Miss French?”

Belle got up and followed the nurse out of the waiting room in something akin to a trance. As they walked, she listened to the explanation of Nicholas’s injuries and the treatment that he’d received, only half taking it all in. He was going to be ok. That was all she needed to hear.

“I’ll leave you two alone. Just call if you need anything.”

He looked a complete state, but he was awake and alive and here, even if he was bruised and battered and bleeding. He smiled when she saw her, half a smile with the side of his face that wasn’t swollen.

“Hey.”

Belle couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat. She just rushed over to the bedside and kissed his forehead.

“Oh Nicholas. Oh God, I thought I’d lost you.”

“Yeah. I thought I’d lost me too.”

Belle sank down into the chair beside the bed, taking his hand in both of hers. She looked at the dressing wrapped around his upper arm.

“Is that where…”

He nodded, then grimaced and stopped moving his head.

“Yes. Luckily the knife didn’t go too deep; it missed everything major.”

Silence fell in their little cubicle, the sounds of the rest of the hospital still loud around them, but an oasis of calm just for them. Now that she was here with Nicholas and she could see that he was going to be ok, Belle allowed herself to start thinking again.

“You have me down as your emergency contact,” she said eventually.

“I do.” Even though his gaze was bleary from injury and pain relief, Belle could see the earnestness in it. “I can’t think of anyone that I would rather have by my side through something like this than you.”

Belle kissed his palm. “You’re a softie at heart, you know.”

“Never.” Nonetheless, he squeezed her fingers in gratitude for her presence.

It was time to say it. She had to say it now.

“I love you, Nicholas. I love you more than learning itself.”

Considering that one of the first things she had ever said to him was that she loved learning more than anything else in the world, she didn’t know how else to express the enormity of her feelings towards him.

“A high accolade indeed.”

Tears pricked her eyelids at this remark. She hadn’t cried since she’d received the news, but now all the emotion came out in a flood.

“I’m being serious, Nicholas! Do you know how I felt when I got that call? I was terrified of losing you! I thought I might never have the chance to tell you I loved you! Don’t be flippant with me, because this is too important to me for you to turn this into another battle.”

She buried her face in the bedsheets, and after a few moments, she felt Nicholas bring her hand up to his lips and peck a kiss to her knuckles.

“I’m sorry. I’d say blame the morphine but we both know I’m just as much of an arse when I’m not high as a kite.” He paused. “Belle… After it happened, all I could think about was you. I was in so much pain and there was so much blood everywhere, but you were the only thing on my mind. I just wanted to see you.”

Belle lifted her head and wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.

“I love you too,” Nicholas whispered. “It took me getting beaten up to realise something that I should have worked out ages ago, but I love you too, Belle.”

It was hardly the most romantic place for such confessions, but they’d never bowed to convention before. Belle learned in and kissed the good side of his mouth. There wasn’t anything else to say. There didn’t need to be anything else. They were together, and they were in love, and Nicholas was going to be all right. That was all they needed. They would learn everything else in time along the way.


End file.
